Signs
by xfirefly9x
Summary: Kaylee/Simon, River/Jayne. River and Kaylee make something. Friendship fic.
1. Making Signs With River

**A/N: This fic was written for a request from xsoulquakex on livejournal: a Kaylee and River friendship fic with the prompt 'paint'. There's also quite a bit of Kaylee/Simon in it, too. Totally unintentional but it works well. Hope you like!**

Signs 

Kaylee sat cross-legged on the cargo bay floor, the paintbrush in her hand hovering over a half finished sign for her door. Her old one was faded, so she'd decided it was time for a change. An old dinner plate served as a palette and splotches of red, yellow and blue pain stained its smooth surface. It sat next to her with a pile of old rags that she had been using to clean up paint that she had spilled earlier. Jayne had been kind enough to let her have them.

"Kaylee," Simon called, startling her out of her reverie. She swung around and seeing him there, grinned widely and gestured at the ground beside her.

"Hey, Simon," she chirped. "Wanna help?"

"Actually, I was hoping that you'd let River help for awhile. She's been doing really well since I changed her medication, so she shouldn't be a problem."

"Sure! We can make a sign for your rooms, too!" Kaylee chattered excitedly, pulling herself to her feet and retrieving two more pieces of wood. She handed one to Simon and returned to her seat.

"What's this for?" Simon asked, a mite bewildered. He nervously played with the wood in his hands, turning it over and over and running his fingers along it's smooth surface.

"That's for you, Simon!" Kaylee grinned. "You're making one too, aren't you?"

"Oh, me? No thanks! I can't draw," he replied hurriedly.

Kaylee's face fell. "Doesn't matter none. You just need to be able to write, is all. You can write, can't you?" she teased, picking up her paintbrush and continuing with her sign.

"Sorry, I think I'll sit this one out," Simon told her. Building up his courage, he added, "Maybe you could make me one, though?"

Kaylee grinned. "Sure, that'd be shiny. Guess I'll see you later then!"

"Yes, see you later. I'll just go and get River," Simon turned and took maybe four steps towards the door leading down to the infirmary when River's head popped around the door startling him.

"I'm here," River informed him.


	2. Paint And Strawberries

**A/N: I'm aiming at about 4 or 5 chapters for this fic. I'm not sure how long til I post the rest of it, but I'll try for soon. Still working on my other fics, as well...**

Simon stared dumbstruck as his little sister moved past him and sat down next to Kaylee. "I guess I won't have to go and get River, then," he muttered to himself. Focusing his attention on her, he shoved his hands in his pockets and chewed at his bottom lip thoughtfully. "River? I'm going to read for a while in our room, okay? Stay here with Kaylee."

River looked up at him and nodded. "Paint. A substance composed of solid colouring matter mixed with a liquid vehicle or medium and applied as a coating. Sketch in lines or words to make a picture."

"Right," Simon's lip curved into a half smile. "I'll see you later, then. Thanks Kaylee," smiling, he headed towards his room, leaving his sister in the mechanic's care.

"So, River. What do you wanna paint?" Kaylee watched patiently as a thoughtful expression crossed the girls' face.

River cocked her head to the side for a moment before answering. "Pinecones," she grinned, retrieving a paintbrush from the floor and dipping it into the red paint. She scooped some of the paint up into a new heap and added some yellow. Kaylee watched fascinated as she mixed it. The paint slowly changed to an orange colour.

Adding an even smaller amount of blue to the mix, River glanced down at the piece of wood in front of her before combining the colours once again. She had to play around with the different amounts of paint before finally, the paint was a chocolate brown colour that she was happy with.

"That looks like melted chocolate!" Kaylee exclaimed. "Makes me wanna dip strawberries in it!" Her grin faded. "I got none left, though." They had bought a punnet of the red fruit last time they had stopped on the core planets and had shared them out evenly between the crew. Kaylee had eaten her last one only hours ago.

River smiled sweetly at Kaylee and fished around in her pocket. "You can have mine," she told her, pulling out a slightly battered strawberry and holding it out to her.

"Really? Are you sure?" Kaylee's eyes shone and her feint smile widened until it lit up the room.

River nodded. "Indigestion brings it back up. You have it instead," she explained.

"Thanks so much, River! You're the bested friend I've ever had!" She wrapped the girl up in a warm hug, careful not to squash the strawberry in the process. Breaking away, she took the berry from River's outstretched hand and slipped it into the small wooden box that Book had used to carry the strawberries he'd used to pay for his board. It had a distinctive smell of strawberries and Kaylee like to smell it every so often when they hadn't had fruit in awhile.

"I'll save it for later," she explained to River, as she pushed the box to the side.


	3. Finishing Touches And A Plan

River nodded and turned her attention back to painting her sign. Pushing the brown paint to the side, she dipped her brush in the red and slowly curved an 'R' onto the far left of the sign. For the 'I', she used blue, the 'V' she used a green colour – yellow and blue mixed together, for the 'E' she used blue again and for the second 'R' she used red, once again.

Kaylee meanwhile, had finished writing her name in red paint and had begun to draw flowers along the border and small yellow stars. She paused for a moment to admire her work.

"Very pretty," River murmured to her.

"Thanks! You're is great, too!" Kaylee beamed. She continued with her sign, finishing the last few stars and putting her brush to the side.

"I'm all done!" She proclaimed happily. She stood up and carefully carried her sign over to a patch of newspapers that lay strewn on the floor out of the way of the crew. Placing it down, she took a moment to appreciate it. It was a lot brighter than her last sign and would make a perfect addition to her room.

River watched her, her lip curved into a small smile.

Finally, the mechanic broke her gaze from her artwork and returned to River's side. She retrieved her soiled paintbrush from the ground and scrunched up the newspaper she'd been leaning on. Chewing her bottom lip thoughtfully, she glanced up at the girl.

"River? I'm jus' gonna wash up this," she explained, gesturing to the paintbrush. "I'll be back before you can blink."

Without another word, she was off. River stared after her until she disappeared into the hall, before solemnly returning to her sign. In next to no time, she was finished. Her name was printed neatly across the timber and miniature versions of pinecones danced around the border. Thin tendrils of green stemmed between the pinecones and gave an unsettling resemblance to a strawberry plant. Except that instead of strawberries, there were pinecones.

Nodding her head appreciatively, River copied Kaylee's moves and put her sign to the side to dry. She was about to go and wash her paintbrush when a sudden thought came to her. Not long later, she had a plan formulated in her mind. A cocky grin found its way onto the girls' face and she set about putting her plan into action.


	4. A New Creation

**A/N: The last chapter!**

Kaylee found Simon in the mess, a heavy-looking book spread out on the table in front of him that looked to be medical-related. The doctor was so engrossed in what he was doing that he didn't notice her enter the room at first.

"Hey Simon!"

"Wha–?" Simon swung around startled. For a moment, his mouth hung open in shock, but he managed to close it and finally responded to the mechanic's bright welcome. "Oh, Kaylee. Hi," he greeted her. "What're you doing here?"

Kaylee frowned. "You don't seem happy to see me. Maybe I'll jus' go and come back when you're not here anymore," she mused.

"No, no! I'm happy to see you! Just surprised. I thought you were with River?" Simon defended, hurriedly. For some reason, he was always saying the wrong thing when Kaylee was around. The words just broke apart and came out all jumbled. It had never happened to him before he met the cheery mechanic and he hated how vulnerable and jerky it made him appear.

Shrugging it off, he watched as Kaylee walked over to the sink, dropping a scrunched up ball of newspaper into the disposal on the way. She turned the water on and held her paintbrush under the gentle spray, letting the watery-paint run down the drain.

"Oh, okay," Kaylee's lip curved slightly. "I jus' thought – " She paused for a moment as if pondering her next words. "Never mind. It's all shiny."

"Good," Simon smiled back before changing the subject, curious of his sister's current whereabouts. "So, where is River?"

"Oh, I jus' left her in the cargo bay for a minute. I needed to clean up this," she explained, gesturing at the paintbrush.

"Right. Well, I might go and check on her…"

"Aw, Simon. Don't worry about her. I'm sure she's fine. She's still painting," Kaylee argued, putting on an innocent face to convince the doctor. He watched her, the uncertainty still playing in his eyes, but gave a reluctant sigh before relaxing back into his seat. "I'll be going back in a sec, anyways," she added with a smile.

"Right. Okay then," Simon allowed himself to be convinced and glanced back down at his book to turn the page.

Kaylee meanwhile, had finished at the sink and walked over to him. "See? I'm going down right now. Nothing to fret about, Simon."

"Sure," Simon still watched her worriedly as she headed back to the cargo bay.

Kaylee hummed softly to herself as she walked back down towards River. It was the song that had been playing at the ball in Persephone, when they'd been on the deal for Badger and Sir Warrick Harrow. That had been one hell of a party.

Finally reaching the cargo bay, Kaylee's humming stopped abruptly as she saw what River had done while she was away. Her mouth dropped open and she gaped at the girl. River just looked up at her with big brown puppy dog eyes, as if nothing had even happened.

"River! What did you do?" Kaylee exclaimed, finally finding the words. She moved forwards to examine River's latest creation.

"It's for Jayne," River smiled. She picked up the piece of timber from in front of her and went to place it next to the others.

"Yes, honey. I can see that," Kaylee told her. She rubbed her eyes disbelievingly and went back to staring at River.

"I'll jus' go get the others. They'll love to see this," Kaylee tore her eyes away from the girl and bounded off to find the rest of the crew, leaving River standing alone in the cargo bay.

Several minutes later, the entire crew were gathered around River and her piece of art.

"River!" Inara exclaimed upon first seeing it. She covered her mouth to prevent the laugh from escaping her lips and grasped at the Captain's arm for support. Mal watched her, confused by her reaction until seeing the sign himself. He held onto the railing, unable to stop the fits of laughter from taking over him.

Zoe smirked and held onto her husband for support as Inara had with Mal – Wash wasn't faring much better though and instead of helping Zoe, did quite the opposite. He was having similar affects to Mal, except that in addition to the tears streaming down his face, his sides were aching from laughing so hard.

Simon's mouth gaped open before he joined the others in their amusement, an unstoppable grin breaking out on his face and spreading like the plague. Book snorted relentlessly and watched as Jayne stepped up to take a look.

"Why's it pink?" The confused mercenary asked.

River cocked her head to the side and smiled. "Jayne's a girls' name."


End file.
